Moisture-adsorbing HAMS-based aerogel with pH-responsive cinnamaldehyde release for active fruit preservation

During fruit storage, respiration and transpiration may increase moisture accumulation and accelerate microbial growth, resulting in quality deterioration. In this study, an active packaging aerogel integrating moisture-management capability and pH-responsive cinnamaldehyde release was developed for fruit preservation. High-amylose maize starch (HAMS) aerogel was employed as a porous starch-based scaffold, while a chitosan-cinnamaldehyde complex was incorporated as the antimicrobial component. FTIR and XPS N 1 s analyses provided complementary evidence for the presence of imine-related interactions between CS and Cin, while CLSM revealed relatively uniform distribution of Cin-associated fluorescence within the aerogel matrix. The aerogel exhibited considerable water-vapor uptake under humid conditions and high liquid water absorption capacity, suggesting potential moisture-management capability. Furthermore, the aerogel showed enhanced antimicrobial activity under acidic conditions. At pH 5, the inhibition rates against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus reached 98.43% and 98.10%, respectively, compared with 71.88% and 56.61% at pH 7. During strawberry storage, the aerogel reduced weight loss from 21.50% to 8.00% and delayed physicochemical quality deterioration. After a 28-day soil-burial test, the aerogel progressively lost its macroscopic structural integrity with an apparent mass loss of approximately 82.75%. This study demonstrates a HAMS-based active packaging aerogel with pH-dependent antimicrobial functionality and degradation behavior, providing a potential strategy for sustainable fruit preservation applications.